Methodological framework for evaluating clinical processes: A cognitive informatics perspective.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Clinical Informatics

Background:

• Evaluating clinical cognitive activities in complex environments is challenging.
• Existing methods may not fully capture the nuances of human information processing in clinical settings.
• Cognitive informatics (CI) offers potential for novel evaluation approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a methodological framework for evaluating clinical cognitive activities.
• To provide a guiding structure for characterizing activity patterns in real-world clinical environments.
• To enhance the understanding of human information processing, interactions, and behaviors within clinical informatics research.

Main Methods:

• The proposed approach identifies a process of interest (e.g., clinical workflow) and its contributing activity sequences (e.g., medication ordering).
• It utilizes various analytical methods to characterize dependencies and relations within these activities.
• The framework is grounded in theoretical foundations and practical considerations for clinical evaluation.

Main Results:

• A generic framework for applying the process-based approach in clinical evaluation studies is presented.
• Examples from existing research illustrate the application and benefits of this approach.
• The framework is adaptable for evaluating interactive clinical systems.

Conclusions:

• The process-based approach offers a novel methodology for evaluating clinical cognitive activities.
• It provides valuable insights into human information processing within clinical informatics.
• The approach supports future evaluations of interactive clinical systems with opportunities for automated data collection.